magical stalker witch saves the day, again
by JeDorsToutLeTemps
Summary: The pack (and Allison) get de-aged, Derek cannot cook, Lydia ships that, Boyd cries, Scott is walking sunshine, Jackson uses boobs for pillows, Stiles somehow knows how to father, Cora is happy, Erica and Isaac like snuggles, and Allison is still the oldest. And some weird witch person thinks Derek is Sad and Lonely, and decides to fix that. (time jumps yall; sterek)
1. Chapter 1

One day, a foreign presence makes it's way onto Hale property, and stays. Derek lets it slide for a few days, because the presence isn't evil or bad-intentioned or even intrusive, just mildly annoying, so he figures it's fine to leave them be. But then, the presence - a witch - seeks him out. The witch doesn't seem to have a gender at first sight, looking old and withered and as skinny as a pole, but they do have an overwhelming smell of herbs, chemicals and grass. Derek is in control of himself enough to not scrunch up his nose at the offending scent.

For a while, the witch does nothing, not bothering them, and staying away from them all, but watching Derek go through his day. The betas are mostly ignored, but they dislike a possible enemy watching their Alpha so closely.

Lydia, Allison and Stiles, as the humans of the pack, have their opinions set in high regard, almost as high as Derek's, but they can't agree on whether or not to kill the witch or just run them out of town or just leaving them alone and waiting to see what happens.

The whole time the pack argues about it, the witch simply sits around outside his loft, both in the building and out of it.

His betas keep away from them, stay close to Derek or each other when they encounter the hanger on. The witch doesn't seem to notice, they were too busy reading books in Latin and looking through baggies.

 _The witch isn't doing any harm_ , Derek reasons with himself one night, trying to find a plan of action, _but if they stay to the weekend, I'll get them to leave_.

The weekly Pack Night happens before the weekend does, though, and the pack gets forced to move around the witch when they greet him at the door. Pack Night is when all of his betas and the humans converge at one place of residence and bond. Movies are watched, games are played, and smiles are on everyone's faces. Dinner is eaten there, and then the sleepover part happens.

Everyone goes to bed in their pajamas on the floor in the living room, and wake up to tongue baths from the earliest rising betas. Derek gets to join in on it, sometimes, and he enjoys it more than he probably should.

The witch sitting outside his door distracts him from having the most fun possible, and he doesn't like it. It's that night that they decide to say something.

It's after all of the betas have finally fallen asleep, the humans, too, curled around each other and touching head to toe. Their knock is timid, but Derek could still sense the power in the figure behind the door.

The door opens without a creak, and Derek forces his way out of the door instead of letting the witch in. He doesn't speak, just raises an eyebrow and motions for his companion to say their piece.

They smile placidly. "Derek Hale, the almost last living Hale, right?" They don't wait for any kind of confirmation before continuing. "You're lonely."

It isn't a question.

Derek's hackles raise. Ignoring the previous sentence, he says back, "what your business is here? What do you want?"

"I want to make you not sad, child." The witch seems proud of themselves for saying it, then sobers. "I know, now, what will make you happy. A family, a mate, a pack."

Derek steps back, hitting the door. He doesn't like this. He doesn't want another family, he doesn't want his mate yet, and he already has a pack - a pack full of teenagers and emotions and drama.

"I had an idea, you see," they continue. "I would make the last Alpha Hale happy because, knowing what he's lost, he must be miserable. I saw you, then, living here with only two members of your pack, and I saw you react to each one when they came through your door tonight. I know what I'll do to help you now."

Derek doesn't say anything, feeling the heavy fog of magic starting to form.

"I'm going to give you a family, and your mate!" The witch says, sounding excited and clapping their hands together a few times. "And it won't hurt anyone, either! Plus, some of your betas will be much better off with you than their real parents."

Derek has a few seconds to wonder what that means before the magic fog turns into a cloud and he's waking up in his bed to the sound of a wailing baby.

* * *

Erica slams into his legs about five steps into the hallway.

He _thinks_ the little girl is Erica, anyway, because her hair is blonde and her eyes are brown. Neither of the other three girls have those features, and he only knows so many blondes who live in or frequent his loft, so who else could it be?

She's crying, but it's not the sobbing that woke him up. It's quiet, small cries that seem to stop for long moments at a time.

She sees him, and immediately puts her arms up, saying _carry me_ with her body language.

He gingerly lifts her by her armpits, shifting her over to sit on his hip once she's securely in his hold. She wraps her legs around his waist, but they don't meet. She doesn't seem to mind, though, because her nose goes into the crook of his neck, scenting him.

Her scent is different, smelling less like teen-aged werewolf with good control and crazily shifting emotions and more like a toddler werewolf whose control isn't great, and playfulness. The others smell the same, except for the betas and, oddly, Allison. He also can't smell the witch anymore, but he ignores that part of the scents around his loft.

He doesn't say anything to her, just lets her scent him and feel the warmth from his bare chest, like all alphas do with the younger wolves. He remembers his mother doing this for him, when he was (more than likely) younger than Erica is in that moment. He thinks she might be three or four years old.

He walks slowly to the living room, carefully holding the little girl in his arms. He's strong, but he isn't always very steady, and the last thing he wants is to drop her.

When he gets there, he sees that all but Lydia, Stiles and Derek himself are children. Allison is - and he's guessing, here - the oldest at eight (?), while Boyd is the youngest at one (?). Stiles is awake, sleepily peering down at Scott, Cora and Isaac, who are pulling at his shirt's hem, but Lydia is fast asleep. Jackson is curled up on her stomach, not quite sleeping over Boyd's screeching and the others' loud whines and whimpers.

Allison is still sleeping, too, lying near the couch where Lydia and Jackson are.

Stiles locks eyes with Derek, and says, "please tell me you have some experience with children."

"Very limited amounts," he answers. Erica furrows deeper into his neck, and he tightens his hold accordingly. Stiles smells like confusion after his response, a sharp scent, and so he explains, "my younger cousins, and my younger siblings. I was only four when…" _when Jared was born_ , he doesn't say.

Stiles seems to get it, anyway, and asks, "do you know how this happened?"

"The witch who sat outside the door did this, I think. They said something about giving me a family, and a pack." _And a mate_ , he thinks.

Stiles ponders that for a moment, then turns to the boys standing at his legs. He scoops Isaac up, and grabs Scott's hand. "Alright, puppies, are you hungry?"

Isaac nods, Cora grins, and Scott says, "very, very hungry!"

Stiles grins, and turns to Erica and Derek. "What about you two? Are you hungry?"

"I think it's more important that one of us deals with Boyd first," Derek says instead of answering. He gives Stiles a significant look, and gently pries Isaac out of Stiles' arms; the baby copies Erica and snuggles into Derek's chest. "You can do that, and I'll take these three to get some breakfast. And one of us should call Deaton and Chris."

"I don't waaaaannnnnaaaa," Stiles complains under his breath, helping Derek get a better grip on the two toddlers in his arms.

Scott and Cora waddle over to him, Scott clutching his pajama pants' hem in one hand on his left, Cora taking a handful of the right leg. He smiles down at them, already knowing his scent and status is comforting to them but that they might want him to be approachable, too. He thinks his smile might be more of a wince, but Scott beams at him like the ray of sunshine he is, and Cora grins back. Stiles watches for a second, the rolls his eyes and goes for the screaming baby.

"I didn't agree to this," the human mutters as he lifts Boyd from the floor. He'd been standing up, sobbing loudly with real tears falling, but once Stiles picks him up, his cries taper slightly. "Somebody's hungry, huh?" Stiles gushes at him with a baby voice.

Derek grins and follows Scott and Cora into the kitchen.

He asks Scott, "okay, what do you want, Pup?" The nickname, which was what his parents called him and his siblings, comes out easier than it probably should be. His throat doesn't close, his eyes don't sting, but Scott shoots him an almost knowing, kind of confused look.

He and Jackson will have the most control over their senses and instincts, Derek knows. Cora will be acceptable, and Erica will be better than Isaac at it, but Boyd will have almost none. Luckily, at Boyd's and Isaac's ages, they can't fully shift into their beta forms and barely have fangs or claws - the most they can really do is flash their eyes.

Isaac just snuggles deeper at the question, but Erica says, muffled, "I wan' pancakes."

Cora looks excited, and tugs at his pants, while Scott nods so hard Derek thinks he might get whiplash.

"Yeah, Der! I want pancakes, too!" His voice is much higher than usual, and he calls Derek _Der_. Another nickname he already knew.

Derek ignores that, though, pushes Laura and Peter to the back of his mind, and sets Erica down next to the older betas. He shushes her crying, sets Isaac down next to her, and goes looking through the cabinets.

The box is pushed to the very back of the middle shelf in the third one he looks through. He's not sure why he has it, since he and the betas aren't the best cooks, and Lydia refuses to do chores around the loft. Stiles and Allison are the only two who can cook worth a damn, and, okay, Isaac's cookies are ridiculously good for someone with barely any baking talent, but the point is, Derek is not good at preparing food.

Derek's staring at the box when Stiles comes in, cradling Boyd to his chest and being followed by Allison, Jackson and Lydia, all of whom are yawning widely.

He stares at the scene around him, his old crush and two de-aged friends standing behind him, his new crush looking at a box of pancake mix with a scared look, and four children, all his de-aged friends, standing around and staring at the baby in his arms, another of his de-aged friends, or his new crush.

It's kind of insane, and he wants to think about how domestic this is, but he gets pulled out of his thoughts.

"Daddy," Erica complains loudly, and both Stiles and Derek snap to look at her. She has her arms up again, and Isaac copies her, saying what was probably supposed to be _daddy_ and is instead _dat-eeeee_. With an added screech on the _e_ of course, because what self respecting two year old doesn't screech as loud as his one year old rival?

Derek looks at Stiles pleadingly, and Stiles sighs. He grabs Isaac's tiny little hand in his and starts pulling him/persuading him.

"Why don't we go to the table?" He asks the kids as he pushes them towards the dining room. "It'll be more fun in there, you know. We'll get to sit and talk about whatever we want."

That gets to the kids, and they start to follow him. Jackson, Allison and Scott walk themselves just fine through the door, but the younger kids look like they're going to cause a stampede and trip over each other.

Lydia actually willing picks Erica up, and grabs Cora's hand. Stiles shoots her a _thank you, Godsend Lydia Martin_ look, and pushes the door open.

He's expecting the usual table with the mismatched chairs, but now, there are only six or seven of the chairs, and the rest are highchairs. He thinks about the surprised look on Derek's face when he first saw the living room, Erica curled into his shoulder adorably, held up in just one of his arms and not even on a hip.

Basically, there's no way anyone could have bought this stuff without knowing about the kids, and god, Lydia had almost screamed when she saw Jackson's little head on one of her breasts, using it like a pillow. So it hadn't been Derek, Lydia or Stiles that bought this stuff.

He decides to think about it later, and carefully deposits Boyd into the nearest high chair, then grabs Isaac and puts him in the one right next to Boyd.

Erica goes in the last highchair, and Cora gets to sit in the seat with the booster. Scott and Allison sit next to each other on the other side, with Jackson next to Allison, and then a free seat next to him.

Lydia sits down in the chair at the head of the table in between Cora and Scott. She catches Stiles' eyes, and waves a hand. "I've got this. You just go help Alpha make breakfast."

Stiles lingers, asks, "alright, you cool with pancakes?"

She nods, and waves him out. And then yells after him, "I'm not changing any diapers!"

There's a crash, a loud, "oh, God! Spare me!" and a rarely heard chuckle that follows her statement. Lydia grins, and starts conspiring with the older three on how to get the two idiots in the kitchen together.


	2. Chapter 2

Stiles blinks his eyes several times, trying to wake up, then turns over in bed, not wanting to face the day.

Isaac and Cora throw out that idea immediately, though, racing into the room and screaming loudly in his ear about two seconds later, as if they knew he was gunning for more sleep. Sometimes, he hates having kids, especially werewolf kids. He kind of wants sleep. He kind of wants to tell them to go get their Dad and bother him this early in the morning, but Derek had had a meeting with a new hunter group the day before, and he isn't up for any kind of werewolf child problems. Hunters that aren't Chris Argent are seriously hard to work with, especially concerning omega werewolves in Hale/Argent territory.

Derek's old hyper vigilance always comes back in meetings like those, and it drains him every time. So that means, Stiles has to deal with the under-ten crowd. The toddlers - Erica, Isaac, Boyd - and the others - Allison, Scott, Jackson, Cora. They're his responsibility today.

So, with that truly awful thought, he sits up, rubbing at the corners of his eyes, and yawning widely. Isaac instantly copies his yawn, and Stiles smiles as the boy scowls deeper. He hates yawning because of other people doing it first.

Boyd and Erica come into the room then, watching with metaphorical popcorn. Cora starts ranting about Isaac taking her shirt and trying to wear it. As if this is the worst thing these two had done together. Do you have any idea what it's like to find your kids drawing both on the walls and on their father/uncle's face? Well, first you laugh, and then you get mad. Really, ridiculously mad.

All the same, Stiles tells Isaac, "if you want more shirts, tell me or your dad." He tells Cora, "learn how to share, babe." And the he stands and stretches, ignoring Cora's loud protests.

"He should be in trouble!" She whines as he leaves the room, grabbing Boyd's hand as he does it.

"He wanted to wear one of your shirts, kiddo. You have to teach him how to share. He's only five years old. He doesn't know about this stuff."

"Then you should be making this a big deal," she says, running slightly to stand in front of him and walk backwards.

"It was a shirt. If he took your book, or one of Allison's nail polishes, then I would be. What shirt - watch out! - what shirt was it?" He repeats his question after stopping in the middle of his sentence to make sure Cora didn't slam into a wall. She gave him a thankful look, then forgot all about it in the pursuit of getting her way.

"The one with the flags on it," she pouts, walking backwards into the kitchen.

He rolls his eyes. "Cora, that shirt is too small for you anyway. Why don't we just give it to him?"

Isaac perks up at this, squealing happily. "Yay, Pops!"

Stiles smiles down at him, letting go of Boyd's hand. Then sees how Erica and Boyd react to Isaac's exclamation, since those three have a history of being oddly in tune. In a word, they react badly.

Erica stamps her foot, saying, "I want a new shirt!"

Boyd reacts to her instantly, and lets out an indignant whine to help her out.

It's always been odd to him how Cora and Isaac latched onto one another, and Erica and Boyd did the same, even though there was an age difference in both of their friendships. It happened, though, and now Boyd will always stand up for Erica, even if he doesn't know what she's talking about.

Which happens a lot, since she's only six and her attention span is shorter than the time it takes between Derek walking into the same room as her and her demanding to be carried. Which seriously means something, seeing as her shortest time was about five seconds.

But as close as she and Boyd are, Cora and Isaac are just as close. They fight like cats and dogs, and can't agree more often than not, but going up against one is going up against them both. It's cute, and sometimes, when they defend each other seconds after threatening a claw fight, he thinks they look a lot like siblings.

Like right now. Cora turns to Erica and says nastily, "he's not getting a new shirt, dummy, it'll be one of my old ones. Stop being a baby."

"Hey!" Stiles snaps. "None of that. You know the rules."

Erica waits for him to not look at her to stick her tongue out at Cora. Stiles sees it anyway, but so does Isaac. He lunges forward, claws extended. Erica screeches and flings herself backwards, bumping into the wall.

Scott comes from out of nowhere and scoops Isaac up, being his usual saint self. He tells Isaac, "no claws in the house. You know that, bro, so I don't understand why you have them out."

"She sticked her tongue out at Core!" He cries. "I had to!"

Allison enters, Jackson at her side, staring grumpily at the floor and generally being the carbon copy of early morning!Derek. She smiles at Cora, Boyd and Erica, kisses Scott's cheek and lightly hugs Stiles.

Sometimes, he has to go home to his dad and pretend he isn't sad all of his friends are kids now that call him Pops or Uncle Stiles and are going to grow up under his supervision. Sometimes, it gets to be too much, for both him and Derek, and Lydia, too, maybe. Allison always makes him feel reassured, though. It's mostly Scott and Boyd and Erica that catch him off guard with their comments.

She ruffles Isaac's hair, and advises, "you shouldn't let Erica get to you every time, Floof."

He thinks about when he first heard her call Isaac that nickname, back when they were all teenagers and not kids who hadn't hit double digits and a father.

He remembers Allison and Scott and Isaac all falling for each other at the same time, awkwardly and slowly. They will never do that now, because Allison has a crush on Lydia, and Scott has a crush on Allison, and Isaac has a crush on Mama McCall, and also because they're all like brothers and sister.

He leans back against the counter, immediately catching Jackson's eyes. Jackson pretends to hate them all, but he's easily one of the most observant kiddos. Plus, he cares about them all in crazily high amounts. Showing emotions with him around is like writing out your thoughts on your forehead.

"You okay, Pops?" He asks, tugging at Stiles' pj's like he did for the whole first month.

Stiles pats his head affectionately, remembering all the time this same kid threatened to push him down the stairs at school. He's in the fifth grade, now, already a shoo-in for lacrosse in high school, and he doesn't remember the torture he put Stiles through. No one does, actually, except for Derek, Ethan and Lydia and the mama and papas of the pack.

"I'm just thinkin'," he tells the boy, who curls his arm around Stiles' waist and dips his head under the man's ribs.

"Panic attack?" He says it quiet and muffled into his leg, but the words stop the other kids in their tracks. Cora moves towards the door, slowly.

"Should I get Uncle Der?" She asks slowly.

Stiles feels a lump in his throat, seeing how much they all care about him. When he'd first introduced him to his friends, Kira and Malia, they had vetted the girls about panic attacks and how to deal with them. Liam and Mason had gotten the treatment, too.

He shakes his head, getting out of the memory and answering her question at the same time.

She hesitantly walks back over to Erica, since they've apparently made up in the moment he took to calm himself down. "Okay," she says, and he doesn't have to be a werewolf to know she's on edge, waiting for one wrong move to go get Derek.

He takes control of the situation, deciding to be the adult. He claps his hands in the way that gets him glares from all but Scott and Allison. "Okay, kiddos, go set up the table. Cora, Erica, you're with me."

"What about Daddy?" Boyd asks, garbled, staring up at him. Boyd had hated him as a teenager, but now, as a little three year old, he seems fascinated by Stiles, drawn to him for some reason. Maybe it's because he gives Boyd attention.

He knows that Erica and Boyd were generally neglected by their parents, and that Isaac had been abused, and that Jackson hadn't had a stable environment, he'd known that going in, see, so he'd given them that. And now, Jackson and Boyd talked to him and loved him, and Isaac didn't flinch when he did something wrong, and Erica screamed like Lydia when someone came between her and her daddies.

Speaking of daddies, Boyd asked a question. He should answer it, now.

He addresses Boyd, "we're gonna let him sleep in, pup." It's not a nickname he'd ever thought he'd use, but Derek called them all, even Stiles himself, that. It's a werewolf thing, apparently, and all the kids love getting called that, especially by Derek.

Boyd beams at the nickname, looking a lot like Scott with that smile, and follows Isaac and Scott into the dining room.

Once he and the younger girls are alone, Stiles goes looking for eggs.

Cora gets the bread, and the cereal for Erica, since she can't reach that high. "Is Aunt Lydia coming today?" She asks him, turning the dial on the toaster.

Erica carefully pours Boyd's cereal into his bowl, and then starts on Scott's. Stiles finds the eggs, gets out a pan, butters it and sets it on the stove to heat up.

Stiles tells them while he does it, "nah, she's sitting this one out. Uncle Danny and Uncle Ethan are going shopping with her. They've got to get ready for their baby."

Erica looks over then, and smiles toothily. "Is it a boy or girl?"

Stiles shrugs, cracking an egg onto the pan. Ethan had known immediately about the pack being de-aged, but Danny had, like the rest of the city, been convinced that Derek had had custody of his two nieces (Allison and Cora) and adopted sons (Jackson and Boyd) since he moved back. Scott, Isaac and Erica had lived at the Stilinski's since forever, and then Stiles and Derek got together, and they moved the kids together when it got serious. They weren't married, but their kids acted like siblings anyway.

Hearing that explanation from a weirded-out Danny had been a moment of gaping mouths and raised eyebrows and crying babies and distressed whimpering noises, because Ethan knew nothing about babies at all, plus they terrified him. (Almost every male werewolf he'd ever met had been terrified of hurting little kids with their bare hands. Not uncalled for, exactly, but still overkill. It's not like they were Ennis, and walked around with their claws out, or flung people into walls.)

He'd gotten some practice, though, since Jackson and Scott liked to hang around them instead of being babysat by Lydia, Papa Argent, Papa Stilinski or Mama McCall.

Explaining to Danny how untrue that was had proved to be difficult. Luckily, Papa Argent had known instantly, too, because Stiles knew that the Chris he knew would have wanted a part of his daughter being de-aged and claimed by Derek as a niece, even if he thought she really was Derek's niece. (And, holy god, how bad Derek had reacted to supposedly being Allison Argent's uncle.) Plus, explaining things to Papa Argent was always difficult.

Allison didn't always call him Dad, and sometimes Chris acted like he was despite her thinking he wasn't anymore, and a blow-out always followed. But they were on good terms, like Scott and Melissa. Jackson's, Erica's and Boyd's parents had bought into the magical ideas and thought that they hadn't birthed and raised their actual children. According to townsfolk, Allison and Cora were Laura's kids, and the three kids that Stiles had apparently somehow adopted or something didn't have any known parents.

He doesn't realize he's lost in thought until Cora asks, a little testily, "do they know yet and just haven't told you?" She's always been so suspicious of everyone, he thinks.

He shakes his head. "No, the baby hasn't been born yet and they didn't ask. And I'm not making them find out because you two nosy-posies want to know."

Cora laughs, and Erica grins.

Allison comes out of the dining room to help Erica bring the two boys their breakfast. Cora slowly and carefully butters the toast for Erica, Jackson and herself. She makes extra in case, but really, it's probably just for Scott, who's like a werewolf garbage disposal. She takes them to the table, following the other girls.

Stiles, Derek, Isaac and Allison all eat the eggs that are called "Pops' Famous Eggs". They take longer to cook, and they're made on the stove, so Stiles makes them even if Allison learned how in Girl Scouts.

He cracks another egg onto the pan, and stirs them around until they start to form a puffy solid. He burns his finger touching the panhandle somehow, and is just about to stick his finger in his mouth when Derek (he knows it's Derek because of strong, muscled arms not anywhere near his legs, because this person isn't four feet tall or less) wraps an arm around his waist and the pain is gone.

They have about five seconds until the kids realize Derek is awake. In those five seconds, there's a spin of Stiles' body so he faces Derek and also a chaste kiss.

They break away at the screech of "ew!" coming from several little mouths.

"You're horrible at keeping them quiet," Derek informs him, slinging Erica onto his hip. She's gotten too big for them to keep doing it, but Stiles isn't going to say anything. It's one of the cutest things Derek does, let the kids scent mark him and calling them his cubs and pups. He's their alpha, and he's also a tactile pushover, so he gets all dad-like around the puppies.

They've been fathers together for two years now, and it never gets old to see him with the kids. (Derek says the same thing about Stiles.)

He turns to hide his grin, getting the eggs onto a plate and putting more in the pan. The part that makes them so famous, he thinks, is the lack of effort he puts into making them. He'll cut up the finished eggs when he's done making them, then salt and pepper them, and serve them to the kids and Derek.

Derek, who manages to catch Stiles' eye despite being turned away from each other. Derek smiles at him, and Stiles thinks that's maybe the best part of this. Seeing Derek happy, less tense and stressed all the time.

Stiles likes to joke that he's the kids' favorite, since they all love to do things with their Dad/Uncle Derek. Derek denies it every time, but it's easy to see how it lights Derek up, being loved and surrounded by his pack, being able to provide for them and help them like his instincts want.

The eggs burning and nearly causing him to burn himself again is totally worth seeing Derek's beaming smile (the one from Scott that they've all inherited). It's at his expense, he knows it is, but Derek used to smile once every few months. That might've been because he'd just lost his sister, but it's been a few years now. A few years that he spent surrounded by his pack, first as moody teenagers, then as bratty kids.

He smiles more now, but it's still rare. So the Scott Beam (TM) was truly an achievement coming from Derek.

Stiles smiles back, but looks away from Derek down to Cora, who grabs his hand and heals him.

"Thanks, Core." He ruffles her hair and grips her hand tighter for a second.

He lets go as she blushes and turns back to the eggs. Then he promptly pouts, because they're burnt. He burnt eggs. Maybe they could go outside for one of the birds? Can birds even eat eggs?

He shakes his thoughts away, pulling up the pan and turning the burner off. He nudged Cora away so he could have a clear path to the trash can.

While he's scraping them into the trash, deciding not to risk possibly killing an innocent animal, Derek herds them all back into the dining room. They all clamber for his attention except for Scott, Allison and Cora, who seem more concerned with paying attention to Stiles.

But Derek has magic kid fingers and he has from day one. The younger kids and Jackson always cling to him, probably because he's their alpha, but also because he knows how to listen to them and is better at braiding hair than Stiles. Scott, Allison and Cora love him, too, but Erica, Isaac and Boyd are daddy's kids and take up his time when he's not taking care of his territory.

They follow him into the other room despite that, and Stiles is really alone for the first time that day.

He takes the momentary peace to do his business in the bathroom, and then start more eggs.

By the time he's got them done, most of the group are done eating their breakfast. Erica and Boyd always stay at the table when they're done eating, but the other kids go back to their rooms or to the living room to play games with each other. Today, Jackson has stayed at the table and he's watching Derek and Boyd play peek-a-boo.

He smiles, because Jackson is fascinated by domesticity, and Boyd looks so pleased, and Derek is just so…. Attractive, and sweet, and amazing. Interrupting the cute scene is bittersweet, kind of, but Derek lights up at the sight of food, so it's not lose-lose, or anything.

Derek says, "thanks," really quiet, because he still has a hard time with apologizing and saying thanks and generally not hating himself. Plus, Derek knows Stiles loves being appreciated. Plus, he's probably in awe of Stiles' awesome food.

Erica speaks up, then. "Daddy?" She asks.

Derek and Stiles both look at her, even though she only asked for Derek. "Yeah, baby girl?" He asks her.

"Can we get a real puppy?"

Cora and Scott, from the other room, immediately start begging.

Derek gives Stiles a look, and Stiles returns it, and they know, instantly, that they'll give in. Being a pushover is not a good quality to have if you're a parent, this they know firsthand.


	3. Chapter 3

It's Halloween, and the Hale-Stilinski's (wait, Stilinski-Hale's?) are a mess.

Scott and Jackson, dressed as Thing One and Thing Two, respectively, won't stop tugging at their artificially-blue hair. It's pointer than usual in Jackson's case, and just plain pointy in Scott's, and they both hate it. They had to deal with it, though, because Allison had won the rock-paper-scissors game, and got to be the Cat in the Hat.

They're going to a party where the theme is a not!theme, and the stipulation is that two or more people have to have matching costumes. It's a kid-friendly party, hosted by the city and held in Beacon Hills High's gymnasium.

Derek, Stiles and Lydia are matching with the younger four kids. Allison and the boys had already decided to be Dr. Seuss characters before Stiles or Derek could come up with a good idea, so they had to have a different theme. Ethan, Danny and their daughter Marie are also with them, and she's proving to be an unhappy little mermaid.

Derek adjusts Cora's armor for the seven thousandth time in one night.

"Stop," she wails, batting at his hands. "It hurts!"

"What's it doing to hurt, Bug?" He crouches down in front of her, gently grabbing her sides.

"It hurts my hair," she whines. She demonstrates it for him, and he winces when the Roman-lookalike armor tugs on a lock of her hair.

"Okay, let's do this," he says, and then pulls her hair away from her shoulders, so it's all behind her back. "Can I put it up?"

"No!" Erica screeches, skidding over, eyes glowing gold. He flashes his eyes at her, and she calms down, but still continues, "you can't! _Roman warriors didn't have their hair up_ , and you aren't good at it, anyway!"

Stiles hisses through his teeth, coming over. "Ouch," he taunts, wrapping an arm around Erica's waist and hooking his chin over her shoulder. "Dude, I would just let Lydia do something. It looks like it's gonna fall off her shoulder. Lyds fixed Erica's."

Erica nods hurriedly, like he wouldn't believe Lydia was smart enough to know everything if she didn't nod. He looks over to where Lydia is playing with Isaac and Boyd, two little lions with two little roars that sound like Scott's first, into the intercom at the school.

"Lyd," he calls, and she looks over. He's her alpha, he's every person in the room's alpha, and it causes the commotion to die down, even if he hadn't been that loud.

She comes over, too, holding the lion's hands. Boyd immediately jumps into Derek's lap, and almost slides right off. He grabs the little boy quickly, losing his grip on Cora's costume.

Cora sighs impatiently, and animatedly tells Isaac and Lydia about how her _stupid_ costume keeps falling and hurting her.

Stiles stands, grab's Erica's hand, pulls Derek away, and smiles at Boyd as he blows air at the fuzz on his mane-hoodie. Boyd thinks it's fun, but Isaac thinks his will fall off at the slightest of touches.

Stiles and Derek are dressed as Roman princes. Lydia is a Roman princess, Erica and Cora are dressed as Roman warriors, and Isaac and Boyd are the little lions that the girls tame. They're all covered in makeup, and have their hair done up in weird ways. Derek's is slicked back, and the girls' hair is down, not curled, straightened or anything like that. All of the boys have makeup, the older two having white faces and a crazy smile, while the younger two have tan faces and whiskers. Derek did the makeup, Stiles did the hair.

It's long since been decided that that's the order of things in their house.

The only makeup Derek didn't do was for the other family there. Danny did their makeup, and they were all wearing wigs, so there was no need to do hair. Ethan was going as King Triton, Danny as Prince Eric, and Marie as Ariel.

Ethan manages to keep Marie still for long enough that Danny can slide the wig on over her head, and Stiles and Derek watch as their own kids chat.

Erica and Boyd are the best of friends, and they're talking as well as they can, since Boyd still only has a limited vocabulary. Isaac talks to Cora as Lydia helps her with her costume, and it's cute how they get so in depth. Allison, Scott and Jackson are standing in a circle near the door, handing out candy and bickering. Scott and Jackson are actually behaving, but with those three, it's rarely, if ever, completely civil.

It's nice to see things like this, at least, where everything is nice and good and calm, for the most part.

It won't be like this for long. In the dead of the night, Derek and Stiles whisper about Malia, the werecoyote, and Kira, the kitsune, and Brett, the werewolf. They talk about biting Liam, and whether it's a good idea to let Mason in on the secret or not. They talk about Hayden, and Cory, and Tracy, who are chimeras.

They talk about how Stiles feels like he's already Liam's father, and how he worries about his new friends like the mom-friend he vowed to never be. They talk about how Malia could be Derek's Uncle Peter's child, and what that means.

They'll be expanding their pack, soon, and the kids don't know about it. There's no way to tell how they'll react, but it doesn't matter, not tonight.

No, tonight, Stiles is going to shout, "picture time, kiddos! Gramps and Grams want pictures!"

Tonight, they'll take pictures of everyone, eyes closed.

Tonight, they'll just have fun. There's no monster trying to kill them, there's no sickness hanging around, there's nothing but candy and mandatory Hocus Pocus viewing, and storytelling.

Tonight, they can all just relax, and be normal, and not have to think about what they're gonna do next.

Stiles and Derek smile at each other, knowing what the other is thinking and agreeing completely. Let's call it the perk of being mates, and parents.

Cora comes running over, then, screaming, "Aunt Liddie helped me, Dad!"

"Look!" Isaac says loudly from behind her.

"It looks great, baby," Stiles gushes, crouching down and giving Derek another smile.

Derek could really get used to this, he thinks, watching everyone again. They call it brooding, but he's just observing. And they make a good picture.


End file.
